200-year-old Shipwreck Found in Gulf

An oil company exploring for oil has found a 200-year-old shipwreck in the Gulf of Mexico that is exceptionally well-preserved, Fox News reports.

The exploration crew's chance discovery has provided a trove of new information to scientists.

"When we saw it we were all just astonished because it was beautifully preserved, and by that I mean for a 200-year-old shipwreck," Jack Irion, maritime archaeologist with the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in New Orleans told Fox News.

Video shows muskets, gin and wine bottles littering the Gulf bottom around the wreck which is 200 miles off the northern Gulf coast and at a 4,000 foot depth.

The depth has kept it largely undisturbed during two centuries of storms and hurricanes. And although most of the ship's wood dissolved long ago, the copper hull and its contents remain in place, scientists say.

"The wood is deteriorated. It's largely been eaten away by marine organisms, but what is left is a copper shell which would have been the lower part of the hull which was sheathed in copper to protect it," Irion said.

'Very few shipwrecks have been found that still have the stove intact.'